Grants and Other Financial Assistance Programs: FY2014

Adult Career PathwaysFund Code: 540/541

Purpose:

The purpose of the Adult Career Pathways grant program is to support eligible adult students' career-related goals, and strengthen their preparation for employment opportunities and/or occupationally specific education and training programs.

Priorities:

The priority is to support ABE/ESOL instruction that integrates the priority or priorities identified by the regional workforce systems to assist students in acquiring the academic skills and career information necessary to gain access to a career pathway.

The Department awards this funding through collaboration with its regional workforce partners. The funding priorities were determined in consultation with regional workforce partners and are specific to each region:

Hampden County
Design may include either intensive ESOL (SPL 4 and above) and/or ABE (GLE 9-12) for 20+ hours per week. Computer and mathematics instruction must be incorporated into both the ESOL and the ABE curriculum. Program design must include case management or counseling that addresses employment and career goals and exploration of postsecondary education and training options, including introduction to local educational and career resources such as training programs and educational institutions.

Eligibility:

Eligible applicants are public and private non-profit entities of demonstrated effectiveness that currently receive funding for a Community Adult Learning Center grant (Fund Code 340/345/359), including local educational agencies, community-based organizations, volunteer literacy organizations, institutions of higher learning, public or private non-profit agencies, libraries, public housing authorities, other non-profit institutions that have the ability to provide literacy services to adults and families, and consortia of the agencies, organizations, institutions, libraries, and authorities described above.

Funding:

Funds are available for applicants in the region proposing services for the City of Springfield. The amount of funding available for Fund code 540/541 will be: $52,174.00

All allocations are subject to state and federal appropriations.

Fund Use:

Funds may be used to support personnel and non-personnel costs related to establishing or operating career pathways programs, in Department-funded Community Adult Learning Centers, that provide adult basic education 1 instruction and related services that address the regional priority or priorities of the region the applicant proposes to serve. (See Priorities section above.)

Allowable activities are those described in sections 203 and 231(b) of the Adult and Family Literacy Act, (AEFLA), referenced as Title II of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998. Specifically, such activities include services or instruction below the postsecondary level, including adult education and literacy services, workplace literacy services, family literacy services, and or English literacy programs. Adult education funds may not be used to support occupational training.

Eligible students are individuals who have attained 16 years of age, are not enrolled or required to be enrolled in secondary school under state law, and who:

lack sufficient mastery of basic educational skills to enable them to function effectively in society,

do not have a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent, and have not achieved an equivalent level of education, or,

are unable to speak, read, or write the English language.

The Department requires its ABE grant recipients to immediately enroll any student in good standing who seeks to transfer from another Community Adult Learning Center program, or to place this student at the top of the appropriate waiting list. Students displaced from the closing of Department funded Community Adult Learning Center programs located in Springfield must be given priority access to newly funded programs.

Not less than 75 percent of funds must be spent on adult basic education direct services; not more than 25 percent may be spent on administrative costs, including indirect costs.

Agencies with an approved federal indirect cost rate shall not receive more than an 8% indirect rate for adult education programs. Agencies with a Department-approved indirect cost rate (IDC) shall not receive more than a 5% indirect rate for adult education programs. The total of direct and indirect costs may not exceed the total grant award. In lieu of charging for indirect costs, grantees that provide an appropriate and detailed allocation of agency wide costs to their grant programs may receive Department approval to include them as direct costs.

Project Duration:

Upon approval through 6/30/2014 (State-funded - Fund Code: 541); conditionally renewable for up to an additional one (1) year.

Upon approval through 8/31/2014 (Federally-funded - Fund Code: 540); conditionally renewable for up to an additional one (1) year.

Grant awards for Adult Career Pathways are renewable for the duration of a maximum of one year subject to satisfactory performance, the appropriation of state and federal funds, and the continuance of federal authorizing legislation. The Department is considering the release of a three year RFP (FY 2015-FY2017) when these grants expire.

Telephone inquiries for assistance using the RFP mailbox and/or the ACLS webpage may be directed to the ACLS receptionist at (781) 338-3850.

Bidder's Conference:

A bidders' conference is scheduled for Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at the Regional Employment Board Center at 1441 Main St., Springfield. The Community Adult Learning Center session is scheduled from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and is followed by a session on the Adult Career Pathways grant program from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. A SMARTT Refresher training is available at 12:30 p.m. on the same day and at the same location as the bidders' conference.

Date Due:

Friday, May 3, 2013Proposals must be received at the Department by 3:00 p.m. on the date due.

Required Forms:

Part I - General - Program Unit Signature Page - (Standard Contract Form and Application for Program Grants)

Budget Narrative (designed by applicant; see instructions in Part III, Section III)

Match Narrative (designed by applicant; see instructions in Part III, Section III)

Schedule B - Cost Sharing or Matching Schedule

Required Appendices:

Appendix H: Job descriptions with minimum required qualifications for each key position on the grant.

Additional Requirements:

Compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, As Amended, is a pre-requisite to receipt of a grant award.

Applicants are required to provide an auditable matching share of 20% of the total amount of the requested grant award.

Upon notification of funding, all successful Adult Career Pathways applicants will be required to enter funded classes and other program design elements in SMARTT 2 and develop detailed Memoranda of Agreement with regional workforce development collaborators. Applicants are advised to review the ACLS FY 2013 Guidelines for Memoranda of Agreement (MOA) Between ABE Grant Recipients and Partnering Organizations, published as an appendix to the FY 2013 Massachusetts Guidelines for Effective Adult Basic Education (see Additional Information section).

All successful applicants must comply with Adult and Community Learning Services' assessment policies and reporting requirements.

Applicants are required to provide page numbers on every page of the proposal, including appendices and material not subject to the page limits.

All narrative responses must be single-spaced in Arial 10 point font, with 1" margins.

Narrative responses may not exceed five (5) pages.

Responses to Section III (Budget) are not included in the page limit. Likewise, required attachments and appendices do not count toward the page limit.

Note:

1 Throughout this document, the term "adult basic education" is used to refer to instructional services below the post-secondary level for adults in basic reading, writing and numeracy, pre-adult secondary (Pre-ASE), and adult secondary (ASE) education, and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).

2 "SMARTT" refers to the Department's web-based planning and reporting System for Managing Accountability and Results Through Technology for Adult Basic Education, or SMARTT ABE.